James's Weblog

Last June while playing volleyball, I jumped to tip the ball but twisted in the air, landed badly, and felt my knee buckle with a popping sound. I was busy with work to get it examined by a doctor, and after a couple of weeks of limping around, I resumed walking around normally and seemed fine for a long while. Every so often, though, I’d hurt it again trying to play some random sport, although usually it wasn’t too bad and just left me with a limp for a week or so.

Last week I hurt it again while throwing a football, and this time I hurt it badly enough to not be able to walk, finally motivating me to get it checked out by my orthopedist. I woke up at around 6 AM for a 7 AM appointment, showed up at 6:55 AM—before the doctor’s office opened—and there already was a line. I waited there for about 90 minutes before I got time with the doctor. He then sent me down the street to get an MRI scan. Since I didn’t have an appointment there, I had to wait there for a few hours while they tried to work me into their schedule. Then back to the doctor’s office to undergo more waiting. I think I spent about six hours in waiting rooms that day—a reminder why I am usually so reluctant to go.

It turns out that—as I had long suspected—I had torn my ACL a year earlier. By now there’s nothing visible left of it (which is just as well given that completely replacing it usually works better than attempting to repair it), and in the meanwhile I’ve torn some cartilage in my medial meniscus, which is probably what caused the pain last week.

I’m having surgery tomorrow to get everything fixed.